The Boy Who Never Grew Up
by Lost Girl 02
Summary: Before Peter was Pan he was just a boy in the Enchanted Forest. Treated as an outcast he didn't know what was in store. Minor AU (Pan is not Rumple's dad), but the origin of my favorite character.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is a prequel/sequel to my first fan-fic A Struggle for Neverland.**

**Please, as always, read and review.**

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A baby's cry echoed throughout the small shack. The dark-haired father wept over his wire's limp body. The strain of childbirth had been too much and she had died seconds after their son had been born.

Unable to cope with his grief, the father wrote the baby's name on a slip of paper, folded the sheets of his wife's still face and crept out of the house holding his son.

Taking one last look back, the father ran into the forest and stopped only when he had neared the first village.

The father wiped the dusty tears from his face and tucked the piece of paper with the name on it into the folds of the blanket surrounding the baby.

After placing his son in the middle of the clearing, he straightened up and turned back towards the way he had come. The father never looked back once.

Life in the Enchanted forest would be hard on the newborn, but the boy had an immense amount of magic inside him, locked away to be used when the time was right. The father was confident that the boy would survive.

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_Ten Years Later_

A small red-haired boy extracted himself from the small knothole he had curled up in the night before. He tied a stolen cloak around his shoulders, struggling with the bulk of it, but enjoying the warmth, and walked through a dense thicket of trees before emerging on the outskirts of a village.

He ducked his head and shuffled towards the throng of people flowing in and out of the villages' central market square. Word had quickly circulated about a young boy living in the forest many years ago and since then most people gave him a wide berth.

The boy rarely needed or wanted to go into town, but for his tenth summer he decided to risk the shame and fine the one person who could decipher the strange piece of paper he'd carried for as long as he could remember.

Avoiding the glares of villagers, the boy ducked into a back alley and knocked on a wooden door. He used a special patter that only he and the shopkeepers knew: _two knocks, one knock, two knocks._

A small woman, barely taller than the growing boy, opened the door. Her wrinkled face brightened into a warm smile that made her look years younger.

"My son."

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**Sorry if it's a little short, later chapters will be longer I promise. Please leave any reviews and/or comments for me! Any guesses on who the boy is? :-) A lot of description in this chapter but there will be a lot more action going on in later chapters.**

**Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**So chapter 2 everyone. Hopefully, this one is longer than the first.**

**Read and review!**

**Enjoy!**

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The woman opened her arms wide and the boy folded himself into her kind embrace.

"Please, please. Do come inside," she said, as the boy nodded.

The woman ushered him into the small building. It was warmed by the two ovens in the kitchen even though the seating area facing the street was fairly empty, except for a few women chatting amiably by the window.

The old woman led the boy up the stairs to a small room above the bakery. She gestured to the multiple small cots lying around. "Please. Make yourself at home."

"Thank you," the boy said gratefully, but did not sit down. "But I really came here to see if you could tell me what this says."

She took the slip of parchment from the boy's outstretched hand and squinted down at the faded ink. "I'm sorry but my eyesight isn't what it used to be."

The boy's shoulders slumped in defeat as he reached out to take the parchment back.

"But my daughter should be home soon. She should be able to help you."

They sat in silence for half an hour until the door downstairs slammed open and a shrill voice carried throughout the building. "Mother! Why are you not down here helping to support this family?!"

"Louisa, It would be best to mind your manners. We have a guest."

A dark head of hair appeared at the top of the stairwell, followed by the beautiful face of a middle-aged woman. Her clear blue eyes and high cheekbones were overshadowed by a harsh scowl and many frown lines from too many years of anger.

"Stop staring boy," Louisa snapped in a clipped, accented voice. "What is _he_ doing here, mother. You agreed..."

"I know," her mother said quietly, holding her hand up to stop her daughter's tirade. "He came to me. He asked me to read this."

The woman handed her daughter the slip of paper as the boy watched on longingly. Louisa glanced at the words, then at the boy standing in front fo her. "My children are downstairs waiting for me."

"I will attend to them. But you must promise me one thing: you will tell the boy...truthfully...what is written on this parchment. "The woman lowered her voice so the boy could not overhear. "No matter what stories or rumors are attached to him; the boy has a right to know."

Louisa gave a curt nod and her mother nodded back and descended the stairs down to look after her grandchildren.

"Please, Louisa," the boy pleaded. "I only wish to know what is there. I promise that once I do, I will leave you in peace and never bother you again. But I have to know."

Louisa sighed, "A name is what is written here. Your name. Do you know why we never gave you a name of your own when you stayed with us?"

He shook his head as she continued. "Because some people have great power within them and must first learn to understand who they are before they can live up to their name. While you were with us, my mother saw a great deal of magic in you. WE thought that if your parents hadn't given you a name, it was not our place to bestow one upon you. Why did you never show this to us before?"

"I didn't think it was that important."

"Bah!" Louisa admonished. "You foolish boy! You didn't have the sense to be honest with us after all we did for you! After we welcomed you into our home!"

"Please!" The boy begged, tears streaming from his eyes. "What is my name? I have to know."

"Peter Pan."

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**Please review! I hope you like what I'm doing with Pan b/c I, personally, wanted to give him a better back-story than the one OUaT gave him.**

**Lost Girl out! :-)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry I've taken so long to update, but without further adieu...chapter 3**

**Enjoy!**

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He sat in silence until Louisa snapped, "What's the matter? Don't appreciate the name your parents had the decency to give you?! Those miserable lowlifes..."

"Don't talk about my parents like that!" Peter shouted with surprising force.

"Why?" she retorted angrily. "They abandoned you in the woods! You should be grateful I even told you your name after what you did to us the last time you were in our care!"

"What's going on up here?" Louisa's mother asked gently, "I heard loud voices; some of the customers were complaining."

"I'm just reminding _Peter_," Louisa practically spit out the last word. "About his 'incident' that got Rupert taken away!"

"I promise, I didn't know what was happening!" Peter shouted, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Well your little _show_," Louisa sneered, moving over to the boy. "was your own doing and I should have made you pay the price for it a long time ago."

"Louisa!" her mother shouted, "What happened is in the past, you need to let go."

"You always protect him!" She shrieked, hysterically, pointing a shaking finger at Peter. "Even when you do not know the whole story!"

"The boy was eight!" Her mother yelled harshly, "Even more of a child than he is now! I let you force him from my care once, but this...this is too much Louisa. You cannot condone him because of a simple mistake. Rupert knew that too, and he genuinely cared for this boy."

"That _boy_...got my husband KILLED!" Louisa shouted angrily, tears leaking out of her eyes. "You cannot seriously expect me to live in a house with that...that..."

"I know," Peter cried, standing. "I'm a freak...a monster! Don't you think I know what I am! And i sure as anything know when I'm not wanted."

He stalked over to the door and ran down the steps and the two women heard the door to the alley slam open, then shut.

"Good rid..." Louisa started to say.

"No," her mother said, her voice commanding. "You just sent that boy back on the streets for the second time in his life. You tell me that I do not know the whole story, but I assure you I do."

"I understand why Rupert did what he did and I can _see _the events that you could not, blinded as you were by your grief and hatred."

Louisa snorted in disbelief, but did not say a word.

"I can only tell you, but know that it is your decision of what should happen to him. You can take him to the authorities if you wish. His fate is in your hands my daughter."

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**Sorry if the chapter is a little short. I wanted to do the back-story in a separate chapter so this was mostly set up. But stay tuned and please review and comment below.**


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